Do Grandparents Have Rights? part 2

The first step in filing a grandparent rights petition is to determine whether or not a grandparent has standing in order to file their case with the courts. How do you know if you have standing, you ask? A couple of ways, consult with an attorney as well as look up the state statutes for yourself, believe it or not attorneys have been wrong. I encourage everyone to learn their state “Grandparent Rights” laws. Sometimes the language is confusing which is where a good attorney can be effective. It makes sense that your district representative should be able to interpret the state statutes as well. The most common criteria across the board is the death of a parent and the broken family. In other words, when one of the parents is deceased, the grandparent most often has standing and when the parents are not living in an intact household is the other. There is also a pile of sub-criteria mixed with legal jargon addressing relationships, parental authority, harm, consequences and ways to rebut the content.